Overview of Semantics and Pragmatics PDF

Overview of the Nature and Scope of Semantics and Pragmatics Week 2 What does Semantics and Pragmatics mean? The meaning of Semantics and Pragmatics in terms of Linguistic study In terms of Linguistic study: Semantics is the study of the “toolkit” for meaning: For example, happy means feeling...

Overview of the Nature and Scope of Semantics and Pragmatics Week 2 What does Semantics and Pragmatics mean? The meaning of Semantics and Pragmatics in terms of Linguistic study In terms of Linguistic study: Semantics is the study of the “toolkit” for meaning: For example, happy means feeling pleasure or knowledge encoded in the vocabulary of the showing pleasure and contentment. language and in its patterns for building more elaborate meanings, up to the level of sentence meaning. In terms of Linguistic study: Pragmatics is concerned with the use of these tools in meaningful communications. It is the interaction between sematic knowledge with our knowledge of the world, taking into consideration contexts of use.  Thi s Photo by Unknown Author i s l icensed under CC BY-SA 30 years ago, it meant: Nowadays, it means: Thi s Photo by Unknown Author i s l icensed under CC BY-SA  Book Example: 1.1. Hold out your arm. That’s it. Hold out your arm denotes a situation that the speaker wants; Hold out denotes an action; Arm denotes a human body part. Hold out, your and arm are expressions.  Definitions: Denote is a technical term that labels the connections between meaningful items of language and aspects of the world (real or imagined) that users of language talk or write about (see example in the previous slide). Expression is any meaningful language unit or a sequence of meaningful units from a sentence down: a clause, a phrase, a word or a meaningful parts of words. For example, parts that make the word hope.ful.ly, nice.ly, beauty.ful.ly (beautifully). So far: Semantics is concerned with pure meanings of linguistic information (utterances) Pragmatics is concerned with how these meanings are viewed within our knowledge of the world. This interaction between linguistic meaning and outside world involves human communication with language.  Any human communication involves: Sender: has the task of initiating the message (written or spoken). There are different ways of communicating the same message. Addressee: has the task of trying to understand the message and guess what the intentions of the sender are. The active participation of the addressee to facilitate communications. Sender: has the task of judging that the sender’s original message has been recognized by the addressee and doing some tweaks to communicate the sender’s intentions. Mistakes are possible and can be recognized by the addressee reactions (grins, scowls or spoken responses).  Pragmatics distinguished from Semantics: The difference between the two can be understood in terms of utterance and sentence. Utterances: are the raw data of Linguistics that are unique and are tied to a particular sender in a specific situation. For example: in 208. in the new building. Not so loud. Yes, please.  What are the characteristics of utterances: Utterances are unique for a specific situation. Utterances can never be repeated, because they are tied to a specific sender and time. Utterances are distinguishable.  The abstract linguistic object on which an utterance is based is a sentence. in 208. based on the sentence The class will be in Room 208. in the new building. based on the sentence The class will be in the new building. Yes, please. based on the sentence: Would like some coffee?  Sentences represent abstract meaning and can be interpreted by themselves, but utterances are tied to a certain context and can only be interpreted within context. This is also the difference between semantics and pragmatics! Can you explain how? Semantics: the study of sentence meaning. Pragmatics: the study of utterance meaning.  Three Stages of Interpretation : Stage 1: Literal Meaning The meaning (interpretation) of a sentence is based on just pure semantic information that you have from your knowledge of English. No consideration of context is involved (i.e., who said it, when, in what situation) For example: That was the last bus.  Stage 2 : Explicature The interpretation of an utterance based on the contextual facts about the situation (when/ where the utterance occurred), because literal linguistic information are too ambiguous. See example in page 6 & 7 in the book. Another example: kiwis are delicious. Kiwis are flying north. Kiwis live in New Zealand.  Stage 3: Implicature The interpretation of the meaning of what might be hinted by a certain utterance based on contextual non-linguistic background information and hints, because the utterance might be indirect or can denote more than one meaning. For example, Speaker 1: Can I borrow your pen? Speaker 2: This is my only pen. Implicature interpretation: ________________. Summary So far: literal meaning is the semantics of abstract meaning of sentences. Explicature is the pragmatics of context and disambiguation. Implicature is the pragmatics of hints. Read bottom part of page 7 and all of page 8. Types of Meaning: 1. Sender’s meaning: The meaning that the speaker intends to convey by the utterance they produce. The sender’s meaning is the interpretation that the addressee has to do informed guesses about. Addressees can make indications of their interpretation with their own next utterance (linguistic or non- linguistic). Types of Meaning: 1. Sender’s meaning: Story: every week, you sit next to Noura in Semantics class. She is very quiet, and you enjoy her company. One day, Sara came and sat next to you. You like Sara too. Types of Meaning: 1. Sender’s meaning: You: Noura always sits next to me in this class. Sara: _________________. Types of Meaning: 1. Sender’s meaning: You: Noura always sits next to me in this class. Sara (scowls): do you mean I should change my seat! Types of Meaning: 1. Sender’s meaning: You: Noura always sits next to me in this class. Sara: do you mean I should change my seat! You: ___________________. Types of Meaning: 1. Sender’s meaning: You: Noura always sits next to me in this class. Sara: do you mean I should change my seat! You: the real point of what I said was it just feels different. Not in a bad way though! Types of Meaning: 1. Sender’s meaning: You: Noura always sits next to me in this class. Sara: do you mean I should change my seat! You: the real point of what I said was it just feels different. Not in a bad way though! Sara: I see. Types of Meaning: 1. Sender’s meanings: are the communicative goals of the sender, and the interpretational targets of the addressee. Key terms: 1. denote. 2. expression. 3. sender. 4. addressee. 5. utterances and sentences. 6. Three stages of interpretations. 7. types of meaning. Exercise 1: Page 22. 1. Here are two sets of words (arrive, be at/in, leave) and (learn, know, forget). There is an overall similarity in meaning between them. Is this semantics or pragmatics? Exercise 2: Page 22. 1. Student: “How did I do in the exam?”. Tutor: “you didn’t fail”. From this conversation, what do you think the grade of the student? High or low? Why? Is this semantics or pragmatics?